Beefy's Corner - The Off-Topic Chat Thread

****ing hell this weather system coming in is not going to be pretty. All hell is going to break loose on Monday.

 

Pah..! The worst of it will miss Southampton. It's one of the reasons why this area is the best place to live in GB.

 

It better - I have a job interview there on Monday!

 

Yeah, I also like to use the excuse that because I did exercise it means I can justify eating all 5 cookies. Not that I wouldn't eat them all if I hadn't been for a run. I want to join a sports club or two but I need to move into Southampton first. Looking for places on spareroom at the moment. After having lived away at Uni, living back with my parents now as I have been doing, feels extremely regressive and restrictive despite actually really getting on with my family. Can't wait to move out. Never lived with a group of people before either like most people at Uni do so that should be...interesting.

 

Don't worry Tom. Southampton is in the mild part of the Test Valley. Up in Winchester, you get the same weather as the rest of the country. When it's awful there, it's awful in Winchester. Yet Southampton can be balmy city, still.

 

For some reason winds funnel across my garden and if they don't knock down one fence, they knock down the other. Bit quiet last winter, but have had to mend fences most years. When I bought my house there were two sheds, but by the time I moved in one was in a neighbours garden. Monday could be fun!

 

First American Football game of the season for me today, a preseason friendly against UEA. SO hyped up for it

 

Tuesday not so when you have to mend both fences!

 

For those who are keen, but getting swamped by all the reminders that there is a F1 Grand Prix this weekend. Remember also that there is the Japanese MotoGP at Motegi, too.

I'm not an F1 fan anymore, and yet I'd seen so many reminders of the race this weekend, I quite forgot about the motorcycle grand prix that I'm really a fan for.

 

I'm slightly concerned by this storm. Not because I'm expecting damage to my flat but because my girlfriend's parents are due to fly to Australia on Monday and are staying with us on Sunday night. If the flight gets delayed or cancelled they may be around for longer than expected...

 

But have you heard there is a F1 race on?

 

Oh gosh..! No I must have missed all that. I must make a point of not going near the TV while it's on.

 

TBH I won't be watching it. It's far too boring for me, I can only see one winner.

 

maybe i wont ride to work on monday

 

Well, as said before, I don't watch it anymore, but if I did, I'd probably not bother this time out.

 

On another racing subject, Ben Spies, the former World Superbike champion, who took to MotoGP like a duck to water, has announced his complete retirement from motorcycle racing. I've been kind of expecting this, as Spies has been dogged by a shoulder injury that has spiked extreme pain throughout his chest area. I have a little experience of this myself. Not the exact same injury, but that of shoulder/back injury which has curtailed my strength on my left side.

Spies has had a rotten last few years in racing. As mentioned before, he took to MotoGP like a duck to water, in his first season. But in subsequent seasons he has either struggled to get a race setting or his bike gave up underneath him. The most ridiculous failure was when his factory Yamaha M1's suspension collapsed while racing at Laguna Seca. The bike failures and slowness almost became an open subject of sabotage, they were that frequent, and MotoGP bikes are normally incredibly reliable, on the whole. Eventually, Spies first crashes started while he desperately tried to get some speed out of his bike. His teammate Jorge Lorenzo was up at the sharp end all the time. Then he changed to Pramac Ducati, and there was only one way that was going to go, even if he was fit - towards the back of the grid. But Spies' injuries have remained and he has realised that time and injuries are against him.

He's a keen cyclist of almost professional standard. Maybe, he'll do something in that area.

 

So I ran the Great South Run last year for the first time. It was also the first time that I had ever ran 10 miles. They ask for your predicted finish time as to place you in a starting wave of your ability. I had no idea how long it would take and said about 1hr 50. I ended up doing it in 1hr 34 and the first 5k was my slowest because it was so congested. My parents badgered me to go in a faster wave this year. So I said I'd do it about 10 minutes quicker then I did last year. And somehow I've ended up in the very first wave with the elite athletes and elite club runners....oh boy. It's live on channel 5 from 10 tomorrow, so if you see the elite athletes zoom off and there's one person left dragging behind in their wake....yeah that will be me.

 

England 10.0 up against Australia in League World Cup...2 tries, 1 converted. Good game.

 

Just been sent an incredible email. A kenyan teenage girl has been put in a wheelchair, permanently it seems, so bad were here injuries, after she was set upon by 6 men on her way home. They each raped her and then threw her down a sewer.

The Police eventually caught up with the 6 men and got them to mow the Police gardens before releasing them. They had been charged with assault. The 6 men have subsequently visited the girl's house to torment the family.

Anti-rape laws are very stringent in Kenya, yet they are hardly being enforced at all by the Police authorities.

 

Crikey, I had the first two of the Star Wars prequel trilogy on video when I was younger and remember them fairly fondly, haven't watched them since then but have many times heard people lambaste their awfulness whilst thinking to myself 'They weren't that bad really'. Anyway, Attack of the Clones is on ITV and thought I'd throw it on in the background in the run-up to the Saints game... It really really is painfully dreadful.